Crowds pack THS gym for Celebrate Tecumseh expo

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After several weeks of planning and coordinating, Tecumseh Public Schools partnered with other groups in the community to host a Celebrate Tecumseh event on Wednesday, April 16, from 5-8 p.m.

The activity was held in the Tecumseh High School gymnasium and served as a showcase for Tecumseh area businesses and community service groups.

“I am still in awe at how wonderful the event was,” said Supt. Kelly Coffin, who had seen a similar event held in a school district near Lansing and brought the idea to Tecumseh. “It was really just something the community appeared to really need and want. It was just incredible.”

Coffin said that the district had published 2,000 handouts for people and they were all gone by the end of the evening. Others who attended noted that the aisles between booths and tables held steady traffic.

Coffin said a number of people were drawn to the event by the entertainment.

“A lot of our students were participating and that brought in families to include mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, so that was a big draw for us,” she said. Also there were a number of children’s events.

“It was just a sea of little ones the whole night in the one hallway we had set up for face painting, a visit from the Easter bunny and other activities,” she added. “One of our teachers, Tracy Lorraine, was doing storytelling in the library and it was always packed.”

The event was also something new, Coffin said, and word of mouth brought people over to check things out.

“There was just a buzz in the community,” she said.

Angel Mensing, Asst. Principal at Tecumseh High School, served as a point person for the event, and organizers are already thinking about what changes they can make to bring the event back next year and make things even better.

“Now we can prepare how we’ll approach it for the vendors next year, which is a great problem to have,” Coffin said. “We’ve had a lot of positive feedback with people already asking if we’re going to do it again next year. So yes, we do plan to make it an annual event.”